


The Heron and The Sparrow

by heliodor



Series: Caladrius Suite [Concept Mercy AU] [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Concept Mercy AU, Gen, Storytelling, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 07:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12383418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heliodor/pseuds/heliodor
Summary: Genji sneaks into Dr. Ziegler's office to spend time with him and tells him a story.





	The Heron and The Sparrow

**Author's Note:**

> This is a quick character sketch about the black male Mercy from the concept art. 
> 
> [[Click here to read my fake bio for this Concept Mercy](https://heliodorwrites.tumblr.com/post/166449854913/mercy-concept-bio)]

“—work for us and we’ll give you your life back? That’s not a choice, Gabriel! You can’t keep doing this!” Genji could hear Angelo’s raised voice and paused at the doctor’s office door. In a playful mood, he wanted to spend time with the man he’d started to think of as a friend even if he could not quite bring himself to feel grateful that Dr. Ziegler was also his savior, but he wasn’t up to running into his boss and Angelo’s perpetual argument.

Genji silently eased himself away from the door, ready to dart into an empty office at the first sign of movement. He could hear the low cadence of Commander Reyes’s calm voice, but couldn’t pick out any intelligible words. Didn’t matter. He already knew Reyes’s reassurances, already knew that despite Angelo’s concerns he had been given a choice. Only it was never really a choice. There was no life for Genji in the After, no chance to ever feel whole again in a normal looking body.

He’d chosen to be rebuilt for revenge.

Heavy boots moving towards the hallway signaled it was time for Genji to hide himself away. Reyes paused for a moment outside the office Genji had slipped into; he was the best of the best after all, but he moved on without checking inside. Genji waited a few minutes after he could no longer hear Reyes’s footsteps to let himself into Angelo’s office just to be safe.

Once he was in Genji couldn’t help but pause to watch Angelo work, back to the door because he’d pushed his desk up under the window to take advantage of natural light. The terrible positioning only made it clear that the doctor was not a military man or anything close to resembling the kind of covert agent Genji had become used to in his time with Overwatch. This was why Genji liked spending time with Angelo so much. It was refreshing to be around someone who didn’t keep at least three exits in view at all times as much as it was worrying that anyone could take advantage of Angelo’s trusting nature. Every time Genji entered Angelo’s orbit it was like he was catching a glimpse of a being from another world, a safer world that Genji still hoped could exist so deep down in his heart he couldn’t consciously form the thought.

As it was Angelo didn’t notice he wasn’t alone until Genji crept up behind his chair and quietly said, “Hello.”

“Genji?!” Angelo twisted to look at his visitor as he scrambled to pick up papers he knocked off his desk in his surprise.

Genji made a show of looking around to see if there was anyone else in the room. “How did you guess?”

“Koi Ahnig,” Angelo muttered darkly. He straightened and cleared his holoscreen in one smooth motion, straightening his old fashioned scrawled notes and splaying his hands over them protectively like Genji was a cat who would come bat his things off of his desk. “Grüezi. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

Genji stalked over to casually lean against the desk. He delicately took one of Angelo’s papers between this thumb and forefinger and attempted to slide it out from under the doctor’s hands. He slid it out a good few centimeters before Angelo batted his hand away and moved the stack to the other side of his desk away from Genji.

“I don’t have time to play with you today, Agent,” Angelo said dismissively. “I have work to do.”

Genji moved to the other side of the desk and Angelo slid his papers back out of reach again. “Are you going to fly away if I look at your work?”

“What?” Angelo frowned, going lax enough for Genji to swoop in and steal his notes. “Genji, please. Give those back.”

“Let me tell you a story, and I will return these to you,” Genji said as he thumbed through the papers written in a haphazard combination of Swiss-German, standard German, and English he could not parse at all for all the technical language. “It will be worth the time.”

Angelo made a grab for his notes and missed. He slumped down against his desk with a sigh. “Fine.”

“Once there was a young man who lived in small village. He came across a wounded heron on his way home from the fields and took it with him to nurse back to health. He stayed with the bird night and day until it was strong enough to fly again, and he released it back into the wild where it belonged.

“He spent so much money on the bird’s comfort that he found himself poor after the heron returned to the wild. His neighbors thought he was foolish, but he did not regret his choice.

“Some time later the young man met a maiden on a walk through the fields. They fell in love and got married. The young woman weaved a type of silk brocade with beautiful patterns in relief that became highly sought after in the village. Soon people traveled from afar to buy the young woman’s silk brocade and many settled into the small village until it had grown into a town. The young man was very happy with his wife by his side. He wanted for nothing.

“His wife trusted the young man to do with her silks as he saw fit with only one condition: he must never watch her weaving her fabric. 

“The man’s curiosity got the better of him. One day he looked into the room where his wife worked at her loom and saw a heron at her weaving. The bird looked up and transformed into his wife. Now that her secret was revealed she could no longer stay with her husband and bid him farewell, turning back into a heron to return to the wild where she belonged.”

A frown twisted Angelo’s full lips. “Am I the heron in this story?”

“Yes and no.” Genji grinned crookedly behind his facemask. He knew he would never be able to keep Angelo even if he were inclined to allow himself to even think about anything resembling love, but at the same time if Angelo knew his secrets…

Angelo’s dark, intelligent eyes raked over Genji’s expressionless mask as if looking for clues before he relaxed back into his chair. “Papers please.”

Genji handed them back obediently to fulfill his end of the bargain.

“I guess you can stay,” Angelo said as he spread his work out in front of him again. He pulled up his holoscreen with a few sharp gestures and a sketch of one of the detachable wings for his suit appeared. “I’m working on improvements to the Caladrius suit.”

“Caladrius,” Genji repeated as he moved around behind Angelo to look at the screen from the right angle. “What does that mean?”

“It’s my turn to tell a story?” Angelo smiled up at Genji, seeming so small and soft despite the fact that if he stood he would tower over the cyborg. “This won’t be nearly as impressive as yours, but a caladrius was a white bird people believed could heal the sick. In some stories all the bird had to do was look a sick man in the face and he would be healed; in other stories the bird sucked the sickness out and flew it away to burn it up in the sun to heal people. It’s somewhat related to phoenix folklore in that way.”

“I like it,” Genji said, thinking about the first time he saw Angelo’s determined expression, white hair drawn up away from his brown face, and knew that he would live.

“Merci vilmal,” Angelo said distractedly as he turned his attention back towards his work. “It suits the concept doesn’t it?”

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:
> 
> Koi Ahnig - No idea  
> Grüezi - Hello  
> Merci vilmal - Thanks a lot


End file.
